 I think for me it was just taking a day by day, just taking in all the coaching and stuff and just producing on the field, just taking it in during practice and stuff and then just going from there. Do you think it helps? They always talk about continuity up front along the offensive line and how it helps them. Does it help you that you know how these guys operate, how they move, how they work together? Oh for sure. I think it all just comes with reps as well. Once you're getting more reps with them and then it just comes second nature, like you know who's blocking in for you and then you know they're strong so this isn't all that. But then that's just for them as well. How does the run game get better from where it was at the end of the season, like you guys can do whatever you want out there? Yeah shoot, really just keep doing what we're doing, really just upgrade it, just two point out. Keep what we learned from or what we did last year and then do it, I would do it this year. So it should be fun. What do you think about just the versatility of this offense and all the weapons you guys have? Yeah, we got a lot of skill players, skill players, big skill, we got our own line back so you know we should do some great things, that's the plan. How do you feel like you measure the progression of this game? How do you feel like okay I'm getting better, we're getting better as an offense? Really just day by day, taking it day by day and then that's really like the theme, just taking it day by day, you know learn from your mistakes and then just getting better and not making the same one. I know that this is a ramp up period and you guys aren't able to go full go, but how anxious are you to see what this offense can do when you guys put the pads? I'm so excited, can't wait for the pads to come off so you know just to see what we can do, you know I believe in us so it should be fun. We were talking to Coach Petrie about you know you and Petrie are having very different styles. Is there been a moment maybe whether you're watching film or just doing something off the field where he's seen something a little bit differently or you've seen something a little differently where you kind of learn from each other? I think really just like during our runs and then just in practice as well like what would you see here oh I saw this and then oh what you could have done like oh it was a good job like just complimenting each other I think that goes along with. What's it been like getting to know him and just building that relationship? Yeah obviously not only he's a good player on the field but obviously having a great relation off the field is always great and I think we've bonded pretty well you know so I think it's been good. Can you tell me about Coach Petrie or what's he like? What makes him an effective coach? Yeah shoot, Coach Petrie. There's only so much, so much I can say you know he's a great coach. Great coach I think he has a lot of learning moments and that's what's always great. That's always great you know having him teach like all like the little details like he's able to nitpick every one of them and then have us just practice it on the field so you know it's great. Always having a coach like that so it's cool. I think he takes pride in being a teacher and you kind of mentioned that like how would you describe his styles? I always try to make it the easiest way like you have a lot of language and lingo but whatever makes it easier for us to understand because he was a teacher once so yeah if you guys didn't know that but yeah being able to have us understand and allow us to play fast in our head so we can play fast on the field. What do you guys call him? Coach Petrie? Pete Petrie yeah whatever you want Coach. Tyler Ray you talked about the language and everything. Do you feel like coming in last year the difference between how I'll just kind of talk to you as far as the playbook and those music and everything like you see a difference in the language and how are you speaking with you and how you kind of communicate with Desmond and everybody else in the offense. Oh yeah so like from last year you just learned in the offense but now I just have a lot of confidence. A lot of confidence just now it's just learning more of the details in the concepts and just being able to play fast before all the guys around me. Do you find yourself kind of like being a mentor to the younger guys or maybe even be John Robinson when he comes to the field language and communicating? Yeah I would hope so. I would hope to think. Shoot yeah so. Here you go. All right thanks Tyler. Between now and training camp I know Desmond yesterday was talking about how a couple guys will get together and work on some stuff. What's the goal for you in that period? To do that. To work together and get right. What kind of facilitates that? Honestly you can ask the man right here. Who facilitates that? I think it's just on us and it's our job. We come out here to play football so we're not doing the right things. I think it's on us to get out there and get good work. So someone told me and it's obvious because he's standing right for the facts kind of an instigator with you guys. Describe that. Because so I can hear you. That's one of the voices right there. No but we love Mac and he's been a great vet in our room to help us. He brings the energy every day. As you can see he's always joking around but at the same time we're seers in that room and he also brings that as well. Obviously it seems like the chemistry has come along really quickly between Mac and Scott and some of those guys that have been brought in. How would you make sure that the chemistry is where it is this early? I think it goes back to the guys that Coach Art brings in. I think we're all like like-minded in a sense. You know we come here and we do work but at the same time we'll have fun in certain ways and I think that's what our group does. Are you excited to see this playbook open up a little bit going into year two? Oh yeah I'm just excited to see everybody get their opportunities and go out there and showcase to the world what they can do. Anything else? I've been able to get done over these OTAs in the camp. I really focus on fundamentals. I think that's the best part of OTAs and then really kind of tune everything back in. You know what it's supposed to feel like and luckily now being with Drew and Caleb for so many years now like the first day we're like that doesn't really feel right and then slowly progress and now it's like you're kind of hitting where you were at the end of last season. I wanted to ask you about that kind of continuity. I hear that a lot and it helps but from your perspective how does that manifest itself? Yeah just for offensive line like you're fitting a block so certain plays are going to have more responsibility or Drew or Caleb does and just the timing of who's leaving and when and so to be able to have they have that understanding with each other and so I can just say hey I felt weird on this he did too and we can kind of just be like you know what defensive look or like maybe it was you know hey I was a little wide on that and so when you kind of have that common knowledge together and reps you can really kind of focus in and get it so it's feeling perfect. The fact that it's not even just the right side of the line it seems like the entire line I mean let's see what happens obviously at the left guard spot it seems like at that level does that put you guys in a different spot than maybe a year ago because a year ago at this point you had no idea and it's really important I really speak with that because obviously working together as a unit as an offensive line but like directly Caleb and Drew but they're doing the same thing on the other side but even to the sense of like if Jake makes a call all the way on the left side it's got to get echoed all the way down and so that's not a skill that we're re-learning it's kind of something we're tuning or working on instead of having to like fully learn a new skill so it's really nice when you have that especially you know in somebody like Jake who's as smart as he is so if he gives you a call or something it's almost always correct so that kind of really helps you out even all the way on the other side Has Jake been the one making the calls last year? No I mean I drew everything runs through Drew What were you saying making calls? I don't know if there's a blitz or something on the left side obviously it impacts everybody so I was just saying because Jake is so far away everybody has to make calls on the offensive line everybody's got to communicate but it starts with Drew and Des but those guys do a great job From the Des you saw a year ago at this time to now what's been the biggest change? I mean he's just taking command of everything he's doing a great job he's staying true to himself which is always cool and he's the same person he was but just the ownership that you take and stuff it's cool when you're a rookie you're just speaking from my own experience it's just you're drowning information you're learning you're trying to figure out how to be a pro and then I think with everybody you see that year 2 jump they understand what it takes and now they're just you know that's why the year 2 jump is always so big I know the hitting hasn't started yet but is there anything you can glean from the guys on the other side of the ball and how that defensive front is going to be able to cause problems for opponents? Yeah I mean they're a great front I'm really excited to watch obviously to compete against them because it's going to make us really ready and prepared for the season but then you know excited to watch what they can do to other people it's going to be it's going to be really fun it's definitely going to be a physical camp which is just definitely fun for sure I would definitely say that I think just overall every time every team every year in this time of the year is you know you're very excited you're very optimistic about the season to come but you know we've put in a lot of great work and then as an offensive line you know we're lucky that a lot of us have been together for a long time so every single day it's kind of cool just the way you approach coming to work every day if you're having a bad day you know people don't have to ask you if you're having a bad day they know you're having a bad day but like in the same sense you know the standard that you have to be so those guys bringing along and that's the whole part about continuity too is just like you have those relationships with guys you understand how everybody like works and stuff and so you don't have to bring anybody along because you can read each other I guess it's fun it's fun as an offensive lineman you especially now like with the style of practices right now you can really kind of you're not so much you don't have a guy running down to you so you can kind of see a lot more and then we take the time in team meetings and they highlight all the play skill guys make it's really exciting and fun to watch I think the biggest appreciation is almost when you have those small moments where you're able to step back and kind of see it and you're like wow there's some talented guys which is always really cool against the Chargers I was on like only a few weeks of doing it and I had a decent comfort level there doing it but I knew going forward that there's a lot of growth to be had so then got hurt that game came back off IR and throughout that entire process of rehabbing I really focused on like I said just the repetition of doing things from left-handed stance and getting used to the spacing of left guard so I was able to do that in those last two games which gave me a greater level of comfort at that position and then definitely kind of gave me some points of focus going into the off-season things to get better at to either see yourself only as a left-guard now or a center still versatility for you versatility is huge especially here it's something that coach Ledford loves and so yeah I'll always be willing to play any position I always talk about how he's a pretty competition about how high when you come in he wants everybody to compete and be a really competitive training camp do you with Matthew Bergeron being drafted and him being moved to guard making that move do you think about is that part of your thought process as far as being ready for the season or is it kind of like you focus on yourself like the competitive nature of the league is something that like we all know exists at all times regardless of how apparent it is whether you're rotating with somebody every rep or you're taking all the reps so it's really just a focus on growth and improvement when it comes to yourself as much as possible and do you kind of pull from like when you were in competition with Drew Dalman for sure yeah it's something like you definitely got to get used to in the NFL going back to like rookie year second year third year that's something that's always going to exist and it's fun it's a fun part of what we do and how do you feel coach Ledford has kind of handled that do you feel like he's bringing both of you guys along to make sure it's a healthy competition? Yeah he does a great job of doing that really the the culture we have within the old line room really promotes like healthy competition and that's something that's happened in the past when guys have been competing for jobs and so there's never a personal level of animosity there everybody gets along really well and we all have the best interest of the team in mind but then the competition drives like the individual performance to be better from everybody so I think it's a really really healthy balance and how do you feel coach Ledford has helped you as an individual? I would say over the past three years just growing like mentally as far as confidence and letting us play pretty freely and then giving us direction when we needed it and being as technical as we needed to be at times with his instruction but like I said at the same time he does a great job of letting guys play their strengths so it's been fun do you get into the old there's a pair that you know with Ryan Nielsen and Coach Ledford they can kind of be barking at each other do you kind of get involved in it or you kind of just kind of let that play out? Yeah you know it's like OTAs are obviously a phase where we don't have full pads on or anything and kind of the run game stuff is less physically intense I'm sure when we get to training camp when things kind of switch it'll be interesting to see I'm not sure how it'll all play out but yeah I've heard about it so we'll see